Australian James Millar today posted his best ever International result, with a thrilling victory in the Cross Country Sprint at the New Zealand Winter Games.

The 23-year-old from Melbourne simply blew his rivals away in the final, in a sure sign that his preparations for the Paralympic Games next March in Vancouver are well on track.   Millar, an arm amputee, surged to the gold medal in a time of 1:52.91, with his classy Japanese rival Yoshhiro Nitta (1:56.02), and Canadian Mark Arendz (2:01.80), also earning a spot on the podium.   Despite ideal weather conditions at Snow Farm near Queenstown, the mountainous course presented the arm-amputee athletes with a stern test, but Millar showed immense class.    He had installed himself as the pre-race favourite following his dominant performance in the qualifying round two hours earlier, and then overcame a strong start from Nitta in the final to defeat his challenge and storm home.   Millar was clearly delighted with his triumph and rightfully so. The victory was his first at an event sanctioned by the International Paralympic Committee.   “It was my target to get close to Nitta. He has beaten me in a few key events before and after I qualified three seconds faster than him, I was really excited because that hadn’t happened before,” Millar said.   “Going into the final, the idea I had in mind was to break away early and try and push on. I’m so happy that everything went exactly how we planned.”    He also admitted the win brought a welcome confidence boost as he looks towards the Winter Paralympic Games. He joins Tasmanian Dominic Monypenny as Australia’s two Nordic representatives on the Paralympic team largely consisting of Alpine skiers.   The Australian Paralympic Committee officially announced the Australian team  on November 25 last year.   “I’m ecstatic, because not only is it my first podium finish, I was able to get on the podium against such good opposition, which is unreal,” Millar said.   “Considering it is early in the season, especially leading into a Paralympic year, I could not have asked for a better result.”     The 23-year-old, who made his Paralympic debut at the Torino Games in 2006, yesterday competed in his less favoured event – the 15km Classic – finishing fourth.    His New Zealand Games campaign concludes tomorrow with the 10km Freestyle event.